My goal is to smith the strongest possible armor set I can, then enchant said armor to best fit the needs of my mage. I'm leaning towards dragon armor at this point as I have enough of the required components for myself and my NPC companion.

My character currently has 100 smithing, 75 enchantment and 30 alchemy. I am aware there is an alchemy/enchantment "feedback loop" (as utilized here) that can be leveraged to enchant "smithing armor" capable of pushing the smithing perk to +29% for refining my final set of armor.

Instead of grinding my alchemy/enchanting skills to 100 I'd like to know what the best apparel is in the world of Skyrim to boost these two skills? Hopefully this will give me the ability to craft my goal armor sooner than later.

For example: I know the Krosis Mask when equipped grants me a +20% alchemy. I'm assuming I don't need to forge/enchant a alchemy-boosting helmet and just use it instead, no?

What else is out there that can boost these two skills for me? Do I need to get my all of my "enchanting apparel" and "alchemy apparel" to +29%, or is that a waste of time?

1 Answer
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The information you are looking for is currently at this location. I do believe it safe to call this thread the origin of all this madness as its now on its 7th incarnation and they are still working on the math of it all.

However, to sum it up: The max cap gear is pretty much based on maxing out those skills to 100 as well. The reason this is done is because it saves you perk points. Wasting perks when they could be put into other areas other than making your gear work better is pretty much the point of that thread... How few perks can you use so you can be whatever character you want to be and still have very effective gear. Its honestly not that hard to do in the long run and will always net you a surplus in cash when leveling them up.

Now, that being said. There is the Restoration Loop that, if done enough in a row can likely get you what you want... Though I honestly think it easier to get those skills to 100 rather then try to meet the timings of the restoration loop. (I do not even consider trying to do that loop until my skills are at 100 each).

My usual caution with the restoration loop, it is possible to make game breaking items by utilizing it, even though it is 100% through in-game mechanics.. Just take care not to ruin the game for yourself and use it where appropriate. For instance, I have a character who will only ever wear Fur Armor (I collect ever piece of it I can so I can improve my enchantments on it and so forth). I will eventually use the restoration loop to make a very nice set of armor for the character.. which is a mage... and let me tell you, not using those -cost +regen robes realllly makes for an interesting time :)

I've done the fortify restoration loop at 60 alchemy and around 30 enchanting. It's not especially timing intensive and you can always make enchanting potions partway through and have a stronger start next time.
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MarkFeb 2 '12 at 22:02

I did a bit of work last night with the restoration loop (it also seemed that the bonuses to my skills did not go away once the restoration potion ceased its affects). It scales up -very- quickly and creates potions in the 10k gold value range also, very quickly. I just feel with 100 in my skills I have earned the right to do it more than anything else so I can play the character type I want with out being limited to having to look like a cookie cutter dragon born :)
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JamesFeb 2 '12 at 23:09